Dinner had been more relaxed than breakfast and he wasn't pleased, though wasn't surprised, when Josh declined a drink and caught his eye before leaving. Tomorrow, he would have to talk to him eventually, something anyways but that wasn't going to be right now.
Sabrina and Hermione picked back up their conversation about tea next week and he partially listened while he thought about what the hell he could say. How he could bring any of this up? Sabrina was waffling between attending or not attending the big tea next week.
"The next one will be at Cassius' home. They don't know that but we've finished the room we've allocated for that. Come to that one if you don't want to come to the Dale this month." Something in Hermione's tone was exasperated and he shifted, thought she would look at him and she did. That felt good, that she would carry over some of the behaviours from the stone rooms. Several of them it seemed, as she met his eye and he could see this wasn't a big problem.
"Why don't you want to go? Or why do you?" He asked at the grimace both witches were showing, and watched the two exchange a glance before Sabrina looked at him and then down.
"I don't like the big ones as much. Usually I take a long lunch from work and go the other Thursdays." His sister said and he watched her play with her napkin. Thor only waited, she hadn't answered his question and Hermione was casually sipping the red wine that had appeared after the white that had been served with dinner.
"It's not very nice or very productive." Sabrina said eventually and her tone was flat. He blinked at that and Hermione snorted and then laughed outright beside him.
"You don't have to come, Rina. I go for other reasons. We accomplish what we want to and you don't have to do anything you don't want to." He watched those eyes just like his come up but it wasn't Hermione she looked at, it was him and he thought about that while he sipped the drink that had appeared and watched the uncomfortable way his sister was shifting.
"I will be fine." Hermione finally said, that cleared up the small mystery of Sabrina's reluctance and he looked at his betrothed. He didn't know her well enough to know if that was the case, if she would be fine, but he didn't think she felt Sabrina would make a difference.
"They will talk, Rina. I'll sit across from Narcissa." That was offered like it was appeasement and Sabrina looked up at her then. Her smile wasn't as open as he had seen but it was there.
"You will be busy keeping Pans from pulling her wand." Were the dry words his sister said after the two witches shared a long minute of silent communication, they both laughed but he thought it was a bit pained sounding. As if that might be true. Then Hernione looked at him, including him.
"She will be strung tight as a bow and is refusing to give a single indication of her upcoming nuptials." The heavy tone was funny but he thought she meant it.
"I'm surprised you are free of her now?" This occurred to him and Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"Everything has a folder Thor. Secret file 111 has been moved from black to grey and it is ready. Every single thing and contingency plans. The hotel is still a black folder and it's been open for five months." Sabrina said this as if he should pay attention. He looked at the witch who looked thoughtful and then sat back in her seat. Sabrina shot him a look that said this was good and he sat back to listen.
"She declared she was getting married in two months. After months of hemming and hawing. She had been trying to decide when long before she accepted the bloody token. Pans is so mercurial and you really have to take advantage of that. So when she said it, both Cass and I were here. In fact it was just the three of us, Blaise was running late. So we agreed and got busy. I didn't say anything but three days later she came out of the floo with a bottle of excellent red and an apology. The only concession I made to her wishes to change everything including the date and the time was that Scotland was pretty much the same as Normandy and that she would upgrade my suite. It should be nice. So we found as charming a castle in Scotland as we had found here. Easy to change the location when no one knows. They think they are attending a formal betrothal celebration." As always he enjoyed listening to her tell him about her life. How it worked, it wasn't a way that he had ever encountered or it didn't seem to be.
"Blaise knows, and me." Sabrina said and Hermione nodded.
"You two as well. Though I don't think Josh speaks to anyone and I didn't send him one of the invitations with an RSVP option. Daphne is going anyway." Hermione was speaking to him but Sabrina laughed and her smile was as easy now as when they had sat down to dinner.
Half an hour of talking about Sinclair and flying followed and Sabrina had a floo call so she said goodnight and they each got a kiss on the cheek. Hermione watched her walk out and looked thoughtful until she caught his eye.
"Could we talk?" He asked after realizing she was going to wait for him to dismiss her or suggest something, speak anyways and so he did. She wasn't surprised and didn't look scared but she didn't look confident either.
"Here?" She didn't look as if that would be bad but as if she didn't think he would choose this. Trying to figure her out was not going to be a simple thing. All he could do was try and he wanted to go to that suite. The one she had closed and not used, it had become kind of a symbol while he was in there. He hadn't known what she would do in the Tower, but this felt significant and he wanted to be there.
"Our room." Finally he managed to get words out and he could hear the rough sound, knew she did too but she only nodded and stood. Instead of right at the top of the stairs she turned left and passed two doors on each side before the hallway ended. Closer by far to the top of the stairs than the other side did.
She stopped at the double doors and he looked at her, not knowing what he would see. She looked thoughtful and he waited while she looked between the door and her wand. Finally she looked up at him and he wanted to say yes to whatever had that unsure look on her face, her cheeks were pink and he wanted to kiss her.
"At the Tower I used the house magics to seal our rooms. The master, it recognized the Rites, or the betrothal, I'm not sure which. Here though, we would have to cast it together. I don't know." He knew she would have kept going and she was meeting his eyes while she spoke so she didn't see his finger coming until it was nearly at her lips.
He felt the soft skin against the pad of his finger and the puff of her breath. This had been sort of lost in the night before but was the reason he didn't want to have breakfast there. He didn't want anyone in there, maybe that would change but not right now. That she was offering, he thought it meant she had actually thought about it, not merely considered it part of setting up the Tower. He had liked it last night but he liked it more right now, that she was even offering it to him was making it hard to think about why he had wanted to talk to her here. Now he wanted to make the rooms theirs, touch her without the magic. Her expectant eyes brought out a single word.
"Yes." He watched her blink and then she nodded slightly against his finger and he nearly groaned at the moment. The way she held his eyes until his hand was at his side and he palmed his wand was nearly unbelievable. Like she wanted to see if he wasn't sure or maybe just what he felt.
Watching her hand grip her wand comfortably and then smoothly move through what amounted to creating a magical knot, was a different kind of attractive. When she looked up at him, he had to concentrate in order to feed the magic evenly while she waited and then she did the same. It wasn't the family magic but a charm she cast with his magical signature as the binder to the knot. Different. It had the same effect now and as he watched her wand fall, he wanted to push her up against the doors. She was short and the thought of lifting her to him was distracting until she opened the door and walked in.
He followed her and noticed the pale walls and lack of furniture. It was clean but unfinished and he didn't pay much attention. Instead he watched her look around, as if she wasn't sure what would be here.
"I walked through here when I bought it but the elves painted and cleaned. I didn't come back." She said quietly and he knew she had felt him watching her.
He didn't like not knowing what to do, he could say something though.
"Thank you. For the Tower but this too." He didn't say more but she turned to him and she smiled a small smile and played with the hem of her dress, absently, as if she hadn't noticed. The sun dresses as clothing was as enjoyable as her jeans and he chalked it up to another positive for this place.
"It seems wrong to say you are welcome." She said honestly, he thought it was honest and he could only raise a brow at her, watching her as she clearly struggled with what to say.
"It seemed the least I could do." Was what she said and he wanted to gape at her but only blinked. The witch was ridiculous and he wasn't sure what she was thinking.
"Maybe this is an okay lead into talking about us. The bond too." He said and she nodded then he watched her look around and couldn't help the smile, as if she might sit on the floor.
He walked to the double doors directly across from the ones he had come through and opened them. It was a huge bed. He didn't turn and look at her but heard her walk up behind him and a small huff.
"That wasn't here?" He asked quietly and she shifted.
"No. I wanted to pick things together." She sounded embarrassed and petulant. He chuckled and she nudged him which made him feel a bit better. He looked at the dark wooden four poster with a simple but huge headboard and looked down at her.
"I like it." He said and she looked up at him. No smile or even a nod but she looked away and walked into the room. He watched her walk up to the bed and had a thought. Then he was behind her and moved slowly so she could pull away, he turned her gently by the waist and she looked up at him and he held her eyes while he lifted her onto the edge of the bed.
"This is better." He said and kissed her, not as gently as last night and she kissed him back. He waited for her to press against him and paid attention to how she felt. Without the magic it was easier to feel her. When she pulled him closer he wanted to mould her to him but didn't. He didn't want to wake up tomorrow without at least the assurance he had gone to sleep with last night. He knew what she sounded like when she whimpered and he wanted it, he just didn't want only that and so slowly ended the kiss and made himself not pull her tighter to him. They were closer to the same height with her perched on the tall bed and he watched her open her eyes and look up at him.
"What do you want to talk about?" She asked and he enjoyed the flush on her cheeks and the light feel of her hands on his waist.
Now it felt like it had before, looking at her face and trying to imagine some way he could have her. Not legally but actually. How could he ask for that?
"The bond." He said quietly after seconds of watching her face and he was glad he had taken the time. Her face hardened and her hands dropped. Then she looked down and he waited, feeling himself tense at the first real look of fear or pain he had seen from her.
"Right. Let's just." The way she shifted away from him was alarming and he made himself not reach for her. He wanted to but just stood while she shimmied onto the middle of the bed and crossed her legs. The way she tucked her hands into the dress and didn't look up at him was adding to the uneasy feelings.
"I'm sure you have heard about the Manor." Her quiet voice came into the still room but her curtain of hair hid her eyes and her head was down. His mind blanked at this being the opening to a conversation he had been hopeful about. That she mentioned it now sent absolute panic through him and a strange numbness, not that it had happened or that she had some effects but that she was mentioning it now.
A second before he had wanted her to look up but now he was glad she wasn't looking at him, that he didn't have to try and hide his thoughts or at least it didn't matter if he succeeded. It felt like forever while he watched her hunched shape on the huge bed and tried to see through her curls.
"The curse. I can explain but just, it was all through my abdomen. All the spells were sent in right there. The magic is there. It feeds on my ovulation or at least that's the best we've got. The bonding, Luna said it first, that magic should be allowed to heal it. My healer agrees it will be the best way. With the least scarring or chance of side effects." Thorfinn listened to every word she said and even though she stumbled and didn't explain anything really he did understand. He felt nothing and then he felt everything all at once. He thought he might be sick and he felt worse in that split second because it wouldn't have been the way he chose to react to this.